'Ghajini' outstrips DDLJ to become biggest domestic earner

Aamir Khan starrer 'Ghajini', which released to packed houses Dec 25, is on its way to create history by taking over the mantle of the biggest domestic earner so far, leaving behind 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'.

'Ghajini', a romantic action thriller that explores the life of a rich businessman who suffers from short-term memory loss following a violent incident, has earned Rs.2 billion ($41 million) in less than two weeks from its release.

The film has grossed Rs.1.62 billion in domestic markets and Rs.390 million have come from overseas markets till end of second week. The film is still running to packed houses and may cross more milestones.

'Ghajini', a film that introduced Asin to Hindi cinema opposite superstar Aamir, was released with 1,200 prints in the domestic market and in a lot of small towns where films are not often released in the first week.

In the overseas market, it is now second only to Karan Johar's hit film 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham' which collected Rs.440 million.

Source: IANS ( India - Asia News Service)

2009 will be turnaround year

This year was marked by unprecedented events that took the global economy and almost all global markets by surprise. The failure to predict the downside was unanimous: even respected regulators like the US Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan were unsuccessful in pre-empting the downfall and taking timely preventive action. The global banking community also read the situation incorrectly, as was evident in risky lending practices and in erroneous valuations. For instance, the price paid by a Royal Bank of Scotland led consortium for the acquisition of ABN Amro Bank NV last year is today more than the combined market cap of some of the leading banks in the world. Excessive leverage, unwarranted risk taking, and reckless lending laid the groundwork for a banking crisis that pulled the entire global economy down, thereby exposing investors to extreme risk and significantly eroding investor wealth. Double whammy In the first half of 2008, the Indian economy fell victim to high oil prices, which translated into higher trade deficit, weaker rupee, higher inflation, higher subsidy burden, higher fiscal deficit, and lower growth. In the second half of 2008, the economy felt the impact of the global financial turmoil. The situation deteriorated further when foreign institutional investors (FIIs) began unwinding their investments in emerging markets, including India, in the wake of the liquidity crisis. This led to tightening liquidity, crashing commodity prices, and slowdown in demand. As a result, the estimated GDP growth rate has come down from above 8 per cent to about 6 per cent for FY 2008-09. While the situation could have deteriorated further, prompt intervention by the regulators through aggressive interest-rate cuts, liquidity infusion, and increased infrastructure spending provided the necessary buffer for the Indian economy. Looking ahead In 2009, events, more than fundamentals, will play a critical part. The year will begin with the baggage of 2008. The global financial turmoil will keep capital flows in check. The pressure on the RBI to ease monetary policy further and on the government to provide more fiscal stimulus will continue. Corporate profitability will be impacted by the troika of volume decline, margin pressure, as well as treasury losses. Factors like tight liquidity conditions for small- and medium-sized corporates and high interest rates for private corporates and individual consumers will continue to dent demand. Apart from these, the general elections that are on the anvil, the memory of the recent terror attacks, and general risk aversion in the country will act as dampeners at the beginning of 2009. The markets will have to overcome all these uncertainties before any signs of a rally become visible. Quite a few positives However, all is not gloom and doom at the end of the year; there are a few encouraging trends as well. Prices of food, oil, urea, etc have fallen. Inflation continues to decline towards comfortable levels, interest rates have softened, and good monsoons are expected to provide a fillip to India s rural and agricultural economy. All these factors are expected to provide the necessary fillip in 2009, making the overall outlook positive. Let us look at some interesting statistics that add to the optimistic outlook for India in the forthcoming years: • Foreign direct investment (FDI) is averaging about USD 10 billion per quarter since January 2008. If this continues, it could pull the Indian economy into a higher orbit, like China s in the eighties. • Drop in interest rates can help save about USD 2 billion in interest payments. • The RBI has about USD 235 billion in forex reserves to ward off external threats and USD 60 billion of liquidity to pump into the economy in CY 2009. • Though there was substantial correction in the equity markets, wealth destruction for retail investors was relatively low as retail ownership of equity was between 10-15 per cent of market cap. Indians large holding of gold helped mitigate the impact of the stock market decline. • With the surplus economies of the western world suffering from near-zero returns in their countries, capital may search for better returns in markets like India. • Indian corporates are significantly under-leveraged as compared to the past and also compared to global peers. • India has a savings and investment rate of more than 30 per cent which is capable of supporting a 7 per cent plus GDP growth rate in the coming years. FDI will help accelerate growth, but even without it the base growth rate will continue. 2009 will be a turnaround year and will be decisive for those enagaged in long-term wealth creation. With valuations having corrected significantly and being cheap at around 10 times normalised earnings, investment opportunities abound for those with a three- to five-year horizon. With the comfort of the Indian growth rate being much higher than that of most global peers, capitalise on the present opportunity and benefit from the long-term growth outlook of India. u The author is deputy managing director, ICICI (ICICIBANK.NS : 471.25 +7.1) Prudential AMC

Author: Nilesh Shah
Source : Indian Express Finance

Salary for B.E. Freshers in 2008

S. No.	Company Name	Salary In Lakh Per Annum
		Normal	High	Low
1	ABB	6.5	0	0
2	Accenture	2.3	3.4	2.3
3	Adobe	5	8.05	0
4	ADP	3.85	0	0
5	Agilent	4	4.5	0
6	Alstom	3.2	0	0
7	Amdocs	4	0	0
8	Arada	4.5	5.25	4
9	Aricent	3.5	0	0
10	Ashok Leyland	4.2	5.5	3.1
11	Atrenta	5.5	0	0
12	Avaya	4	0	0
13	Aztecsoft	2.4	0	0
14	Bechtel	3.15	3.25	0
15	BEL	3.9	0	0
16	BHEL	4	0	0
17	Birlasoft	2.5	0	0
18	BMC Software	3.15	0	0
19	BPCL	5.65	0	0
20	Canon India	3.75	0	0
21	Capgemini	3.5	4.8	3
22	Captronics	2	0	0
23	Cdot	3.9	0	0
24	Cerner Healthcare	3.8	0	0
25	Cienna	5	0	0
26	Cisco Systems	8.5	10.2	7.1
27	Citrix	8	0	0
28	Coal India	4.2	0	0
29	CTS	3.05	0	0
30	Compro	4	0	0
31	Computer Associates	5.2	0	0
32	Computer Science Corporation	3.6	3.75	2.24
33	Continuserve	2.45	0	0
34	Cybage	2.46	0	0
35	DE Shaw	10	10.04	9.54
36	Dell	2.75	0	0
37	Deloitte	4.4	5.5	3.2
38	DRDO	4	0	0
39	E Q Technologic	3.5	0	0
40	Eicher Motor	5.6	0	0
41	EIL	4.4	0	0
42	EMC^2	6	0	0
43	Ericsson	3	0	0
44	eValue Serve	4	0	0
45	EXL Service	4	0	0
46	Fidelity	3.8	5.5	0
47	Fiserv India	2.78	0	0
48	Fluor Daniel	4	0	0
49	Freescale	5.5	0	0
50	FSS	6.5	0	0
51	Futures First	6.4	0	0
52	GCI Solutions	2.85	3.2	2.85
53	GE	3.6	0	0
54	Geodesic	4.5	9	1.8
55	Global logic	3.6	0	0
56	Godrej Infotech	2.8	0	0
57	Goldman Sachs	5.5	0	0
58	Grail Research	6	0	0
59	GS Engg	3.5	0	0
60	Habinger	2.7	0	0
61	HCL	3	0	0
62	Hexaware	3	0	0
63	Honeywell	4	0	0
64	Hughes Systique	4.25	0	0
65	IBM GBS	3.26	3.8	0
66	IBM ISL	5.44	0	0
67	I-Flex	2.4	0	0
68	iGate	2.5	0	0
69	Impulsesoft	3	0	0
70	Indorama	7	0	0
71	Infogain	2.5	0	0
72	Informatica	5.5	0	0
73	Infosys Technolgies Ltd	3	3.5	2.42
74	Integra	6	0	0
75	IOCL	5.5	6.8	0
76	ITC Infotech	3	0	0
77	Ivy Comptech	7.2	0	0
78	Jindal Steel	3.2	0	0
79	Kennametal	4.8	0	0
80	KMG	2.65	0	0
81	KPIT Cummins	2.7	0	0
82	Krawler Networks	3	0	0
83	Kritikal	4.3	0	0
84	L&T Engg	3	0	2.4
85	L&T Infotech	2.22	3.47	2.22
86	Lafarge	3.25	0	0
87	LG Electronics	3.5	0	0
88	Mahindra & Mahindra	3	0	0
89	Manhattan	4	0	0
90	Mapinfo	5.65	0	0
91	Maruti	3.25	4.2	0
92	MasconGlobal Limited	2.5	3.5	0
93	Mastek	3.25	0	0
94	McAfee	4	4.5	0
95	Mentor Graphics	7.4	7.9	0
96	Microsoft	9.12	9.5	8.5
97	MindTree	3.2	0	0
98	Morgan Stanley	8	0	0
99	Mphasis	2.5	0	0
100	Nagarro Infotech	3.5	0	0
101	NBC Bearing	3	0	0
102	Nestle	6.3	0	0
103	Net-App	7	11.6	0
104	Newgen	3.75	0	0
105	Nihilent Technologies	2.8	0	0
106	NIIT	2.2	0	0
107	Nirvana	5	0	0
108	Nous Infosystems	1.8	2.4	0
109	NSE Infotech	2.62	0	0
110	NTPC	4.5	0	0
111	NvIndia	7.4	0	0
112	OnMobile	4.5	0	0
113	Oracle	6	8	0
114	Pangea	5	0	0
115	Patni	3.25	3.6	0
116	Perrot Systems	2.8	0	0
117	Persistant Systems	3	0	0
118	Phillips	5	0	0
119	PWC	4.5	0	0
120	Reliance Energy Ltd	4.5	0	0
121	Reliance Industries	3.75	0	0
122	Saama Techonologies	2.4	0	0
123	Samsung(Software)	4	5.58	0
124	Samsung Engg	3.5	0	0
125	Sapient	4.5	0	3.57
126	Sasken	5	0	0
127	SatyamComputers Ltd	3	3.5	2.4
128	Schlumberger	9.4	28	0
129	Schneider	3.1	3.5	0
130	Siemens Power	4.6	0	0
131	SM Creative	4.2	5	0
132	Smart cube	5.2	0	0
133	Solid Core	7	0	0
134	Sun Microsystems	3.5	0	0
135	Sungard	4	4.5	0
136	Syntel India Ltd	3.3	0	2.4
137	T Systems	2.2	0	0
138	Tacho	2.8	0	0
139	Tata Elxi	2.25	0	0
140	Tavant	3.5	0	0
141	TCE	3	3.5	0
142	TCS	3.25	3.3	3.12
143	Tech Mahindra	3.1	0	2.6
144	Teradata	3.4	0	0
145	Texas Instruments	5.8	0	0
146	Thoughtworks	5.6	5.08	0
147	TISCO	4.48	0	0
148	Torry Harris	3	0	0
149	Toshiba	3.8	0	0
150	Total Envt	3.3	0	0
151	Trident	4.5	6	0
152	US Technologies	2.4	0	0
153	Uttam Galva	0.96	0	0
154	Verizon Data Services Pvt Ltd	5.4	7.5	0
155	Vestas RRB	3	0	0
156	Whirlpool	3.06	0	0
157	Wipro	3.1	3.5	2.75
158	Yahoo	7.5	10.89	6.75
159	Zensar Technologies	2.4	0	0

Source : Freshersworld. com

Link: http://www.freshersworld.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9072

Happy New Year 2009

When the clock strikes twelve on December 31st, people all over the world cheer and wish each other a very Happy New Year. For some, this event is no more than a change of a calendar. For others, the New Year symbolizes the beginning of a better tomorrow. So, if you look forward to a good year ahead, spread happiness with these wonderful New Year wishes.

Irish toast
In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, never in want.

Charles Dickens
A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to the world!

Walter Scott
Each age has deemed the new born year
The fittest time for festal cheer

Benjamin Franklin
Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man.

Mark Twain
New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

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I wish you Health…
So you may enjoy each day in comfort.

I wish you the Love of friends and family…
And Peace within your heart.

I wish you the Beauty of nature…
That you may enjoy the work of God.

I wish you Wisdom to choose priorities…
For those things that really matter in life.

I wish you Generosity so you may share…
All good things that come to you.

I wish you Happiness and Joy…
And Blessings for the New Year.

I wish you the best of everything…
That you so well deserve.

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